Global Warming Skeptic Takes Center Stage

A report published last Thursday by Marc Morano reveals that Congressional Democrats squashed an attempt to have prominent UK science adviser and global warming skeptic Lord Christopher Monckton appear alongside global warming advocate and former Vice President Al Gore at a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing this past Friday. According to the article, Democrats moved to prevent Monckton's testimony to avoid any public opposition to Gore's global warming hype. That notwithstanding, Monckton has challenged Gore to an international TV debate on the issue.

One debate over anthropogenic climate change that Democrats won't have a chance to scuttle will come this Saturday when global warming advocate, Ohio State professor, and Byrd Polar Research Center researcher Dr. Jason Box will spar with global warming critic and lecturer Dr. Bob Wagner in Columbus, Ohio. "I've been calling these climate change scientists out for more than four years now, especially the guys from the Byrd Center, and this is the first time one of them has agreed to an open and moderated debate," Wagner said. "I had to agree to all of his debate terms, including providing him copies of my presentation beforehand while not allowing me to see his, but it was so surprising that anyone would agree to appear publicly that I jumped at the chance."

Box said that the debate originated following Box's appearance on the PBS Nova program Extreme Ice, concerning his research on Arctic ice fields in Greenland. Wagner then enlisted the help of local talk radio personality Dirk Thompson to see if Box would come on his program to debate the claims of climate change. While Fox declined to appear on Thompson's show, the debate shifted to Box's blog after Box attended one of Wagner's presentations and began attacking Wagner.

While the vast majority of climate scientists and national policy makers have dismissed human-induced global warming deniers' attempts at debunking (human-induced) global warming science, there remain many undecided folk. Thus, some debate is worthy of my time.

But he cautions that the public shouldn't expect any Lincoln-Douglas style multi-part debates on climate change, as it is only worth "some fraction of my time" to engage "global warming deniers":

Let me warn you that I cannot justify spending more than some fraction of my time engaging the deniers. If it weren't for the chance of helping the non-scientific as-yet undecided folk, I'd also dismiss the deniers. They are so last-century.